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graham cracker bundt cake with key lime cheesecake swirl #bundtbakers

I’m sorry, but I really hate the phrase, “made it by the skin of my teeth”

A) Seriously, how gross is that?
B) What the heck does that even mean? Teeth don’t have skin.
Unless we’re talking about gums here, in which case, that’s even weirder/grosser/more nonsensical.

Anyway, even though I don’t like or understand that saying, in this case it’s true. I made it. Just in the nick of time.

If you’ve been paying attention, you already know that my oven has been broken (along with my heart). My landlord, in tandem with Brooklyn’s slowest appliance repair company, have been taking their sweeeeeeet time fixing it.

As difficult as going oven-less has been for me, my biggest concern through this whole agonizing experience has been that I might not be able to bake along with the bundt bakers this month. It may have been painful to have cookies taken off the menu and chicken taken out of the oven and put on the back burner (literally), but DO NOT mess with my bundts. I’ve baked a bundt cake each and every month since I found this rag-tag (though truly well organized) team of bakers, and having to bow out because of an ancient apartment oven and a foot-dragging repairman was seriously bumming me out.

Luckily the repair man pulled through at the eleventh hour. On Monday he came through with the backordered fuse in hand and within an hour my baby was back in working order. I was at work at the time, but Russell was filling me in from home and once the oven was purring again we were sending jubilant texts back and forth for the rest of the day. I was like a giddy school girl. 16 days with no oven can do that to a guy.

With no time to spare, I assembled the ingredients for my cake and set to work. The lovely Anshie of Spice Roots is our group’s host this month, and she chose “Hidden Surprise” as our theme (which is appropriate, because my ability to even make this cake was a total surprise!).
The idea was to bake a cake with a filling or ingredient inside that isn’t visible until it’s sliced. From the outside it looks like any ordinary cake, but once sliced a whole universe of delicious is revealed.

At first I was having a really difficult time deciding what to do with this theme. My mind immediately went toward berries and chocolate, but in my experience berries always want to sink through the batter and settle into what, once un-molded, is the top of the cake. That wouldn’t really be much of a surprise would it? I pawed at a few other ideas in my head but nothing really seemed to take.

That all changed about two weeks ago when I caught a nasty bug and couldn’t get off the couch for a few days.

When I was growing up, my grandmother always prescribed the same “medicine” whenever I was sick. The patient always needed canned chicken noodle soup, plain vanilla ice cream, warm ginger ale, and graham crackers. Now that I’m older the chicken soup seems to make sense, but the vanilla ice cream just seems like a bad idea. I don’t really get the warm part of the ginger ale, but I guess the lack of ice was supposed to be easier on the stomach, and I suppose graham crackers are easy on an upset tummy too.
To this day, whenever I get sick, I always crave these things. Once I was well enough to actually eat, I went through an entire box of graham crackers in like two days. All that was left was a small trail of graham cracker crumbs.

That’s when it hit me, what if I made a cake using crushed graham cracker crumbs in place of some of the flour?
And what better flavor to pair with graham cracker crumbs than key lime pie?
Better yet, key lime CHEESECAKE!!!

Surprise!

I can’t accurately describe how amazing this cake is. Words like moist, tender, flavorful, warm, & homey come to mind to describe the graham cracker cake, but really don’t do it justice. This cake is out of this world. Why hasn’t this been done before? If it has, why haven’t I been informed? Graham cracker cake, filling or not, is something I’d like to be buried with. Hillary should choose graham cracker cake as her running mate. Seriously. Clinton/ Graham Cracker Cake/ 2016.

I could have paired this cake with any number of fillings and knocked it out of the park. Chocolate and marshmallow “S’mores” cake would have been amazing, but KEY LIME CHEESECAKE was a real stroke of genius. Seriously, out of this world. I want to use words like tangy, rich, creamy, silky, & decadent; but like I said, words cannot describe the otherworldly levels of deliciousness happening inside this cake.

Preheat oven to 350 and move the rack to the center position. Generously butter and flour a 10 to 12 cup bundt pan. Tap out extra flour and refrigerate.

To make the filling; cream sugar, softened cream cheese, and salt together in a stand mixer (or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer) on high speed. Beat until fluffy and completely free of lumps, about 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, add egg, and mix to combine. Add lime juice and zest and mix to combine. Scrape filling out into a small bowl and set aside. Wash bowl or at least scrape it out well.

In a medium bowl, whisk together graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking soda, baking powder, & salt. Set aside. In the same bowl as before, cream the butter with sugars on high speed until pale, light, & fluffy; about 4 to 5 minutes. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating on low to combine after each addition. On low speed, alternate three additions of flour and two additions buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, scraping the bowl between additions. Do not over-mix. Scrape batter out into prepared pan and use your spatula to push the thick batter up the walls of the pan to create a well in the center.
Pour the filling into the center of the well, and use a small icing spatula or butter knife to swirl the filling into the cake batter. Try to avoid scraping the bottom or sides of the pan.
Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before turning out of the pan onto the rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth and lump free. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add lime juice and salt. Beat again until smooth and lump free. Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. (I used all 3 tablespoons)

Pour or drizzle glaze evenly over the top of the cake and sprinkle a few tablespoons of graham cracker crumbs over the top.
Cake should keep, tightly covered at room temperature, for about 3 days. If you refrigerate it bring it back up to room temperature before serving.

Are your taste buds ready for a few more delicious surprises? There are a whole lot of tasty secrets hidden within these recipes y’all. Check it out.

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Interested in learning more about us? #BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the BundtBaker home page here.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com. If you are just a lover of Bundt baking, you can find all of our recipe links by clicking our badge above or on our group Pinterest board.

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77 comments

Hey, now! Rag-tag? I’m going to forgive you however, Tux, because 1. You are probably right 2. That cake is the ticket. I could actually see myself voting for Hilary with such a running mate and 3. You’ve had a rough month. Good job, fellow rag-tag, good job!
P.S. What is the nick of time anyway? A tick of time would make way more sense.

Hahaha! Stacy I definitely mean rag-tag as a term of endearment, but I guess if I really think about the true meaning of it, this group is anything but! We run like a well oiled machine (when our ovens are doing the same).

Your post did two things to me.. Made me laugh and SUPRISED me indeed! Never in million years I thought of using the graham crackers inside of batter for a cake.. Wow, it sounds, interesting, intriguing and tempting at the same time. I look forward to trying it soon. Thank you! :)

Thanks Yana! I was really surprised at how well it worked out too! It worked just like regular flour but with a bit of extra flavor. I want to try it with all kinds of cookie crumbs now for different flavors.

My mother use to make a graham cracker steamed/pudding kind of cake in a double boiler Guardian Service pans. She added walnuts and raisins to it and then made a vanilla or lemon sauce. It was incredible.

LOL! I don’t know where that saying came from, but I do know that is how I was able to pass most of my grades until I was a sophomore in high school and started to straighten up. Every time the school year ended I heard that phrase a lot…lol!
So glad you were able to get baking before time was up! This cake looks and sounds so amazing! I can almost feel that zing of lime right now!

Oh.my.goodness…. I need that cake in my life. My husband is a HUGE key lime pie fan – and he’s tired of me making chocolate cakes; this one is going on my “to-make-my-hubby-happy-and-satisfy-my-need-to-bake” list!!

Well…I believe a stroke of genius here! Love the idea and believe it or not I go through so much graham crackers myself!!! So happy the oven is back in fine working order and thus allowing you to create this scrumptious bundt! Happy cooking and baking my friend! Your Florida Bud, Cheryl.

This cake takes the cake :)) Oh my, You made me laugh so hard with this post. And you made me crave your cake and your cake stand. And I love being part of the rag tag with you all.
Thank you for participating this month, even though it was in the nick (tick) of the time !

This may be my most favourite bundt cake EVER. First of all, that bundt pan is killer. Secondly, key lime pie is one of my favourite desserts and you’ve pretty much recreated that here! The photos are absolutely stunning and make me wish I could eat this through my monitor. Pinning as I WILL be making this someday :D.

OK. I am seriously drooling over this cake. I have no graham crackers in the house or I would be trying this right now. I live in the boonies, and the nearest grocery store is 21.8 miles away or I would be buying graham crackers right now. So… for now, I will just continue to stare at the screen and dream!

Wow. I am completely speechless and in love with your cake. You are SO brilliant. Completely and SO brilliant. I am GOING to make this master piece of a cake AND I think you are fantastic to suggest that this cake should be Hillary’s running mate! I love it!!
Delighted to have “met” you via this group – it’s my first month with the #BundtBakers and I am just delighted!! :-)

Hey Tux! I can only understand how relieved and happy you must have been with your baby back in order, after all I’ve been through this, your’s got repaired and I had to get rid of mine. Beautiful cake and photography.

Tux, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you were able to bake with us this month! Not only are your cakes stunning and writing entertaining I was greatly looking forward to your recipe. I will be making your cake for my birthday this year. Key lime pie is my favorite dessert and what I normally opt for, but this bundt is too hard to pass up!

Tux, just in case I didn’t mention it before, you are a bundt baking genius.

I am in awe at how you managed this fantastic bundt right at the last minute….#lifegoals! ;D

Seriously though, I am so happy you were able to make it this month. Your idea with this month’s theme is really wonderful. I love the cheesecake surprise…if there is any left, feel free to send it over my way ;)

I don’t know. I think I am going to have to side with your grandmother here. I think vanilla ice cream is definitely a cure-all. Wait. Maybe you’re right. Maybe she should have given you chocolate.
Your cake is wonderful as usual! So creative. I’m going to have to search for the root of that phrase. I’m sure there’s some history that makes sense.

This is my last resort for an answer. I have eaten a cheesecake made in a bundt pan. The entire outside was covered with Graham cracker crust. The recipes I found online say to press the crumbs in bottom of pan. This is not what I’m looking for. Is it possible to put the crumbs into the pan and up the sides, add cream cheese filling and the get it out of the pan with the crumbs intact??
Thanks for any advice

I wish I could tell you that I’ve tested this exact idea and had success, but I haven’t.
HOWEVER, most cheesecake crust recipes have enough butter in them that they should hold together if firmly pressed up the sides of the pan. I’d recommend you double the crust recipe used in your cheesecake recipe and try pressing it into the bottom and most of the way up the sides.
Make sure you use a very non-stick bundt or you may never get the cake out!
I’d also recommend reserving about 1/4 to 1/3 of your crust to sprinkle over the top of the cake so the crust is also on the bottom of the cake once it’s turned out of the pan.

Again, I’ve never tried this before so I cannot guarantee it’ll work out, but I think it could. Please let me know if you’re successful! I’d love to try this myself sometime if it works!
Best of luck! I hope it works!